Thousands of fans treat the festival as a ritual — an annual chance to see many of their favorite singers and screamers within just a few hours. But there is usually a price to pay beyond the ticket purchase. Supporters each year must endure the searing, inescapable heat associated with July afternoons and sizzling blacktop parking lots.

Such will be the case Sunday when Warped and its 100-or-so bands on 10 stages roll into PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel. (The tour also stops at Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden on July 11.) The weekend forecast now calls for 82 degrees and no rain.

"Definitely bring sunblock," warns guitarist Alan Day of Four Year Strong, the frenzied pop-punk foursome from Massachusetts and one of the most prominent groups featured on the tour this year. "You can’t imagine the amount of people we see at the end of the day that are just so sunburned and miserable."

Other big draws this year include power-pop veterans Yellowcard and Mayday Parade, as well as the crazed melodic hardcore crews Of Mice and Men and The Devil Wears Prada. Generally speaking, these two genres dominant this year’s tour lineup, though some bands, including Every Time I Die and For Today, fall somewhere in the middle, switching between shouts and "clean singing."

Florida ska statesmen Less Than Jake and beloved Jersey emo-rockers Saves the Day, who each formed before the tour was created two decades ago, are also atop of the list of bands to see this weekend. Day says he will forever associate playing Jersey shows with home-state bands such as Saves the Day, who built a fervent fan base in the late ’90s and early 2000s.

But like the Princeton-based group in the mid-2000s, Four Year Strong caught flack a few years ago when it attempted to alter its time-tested sound. The band’s most recent album, 2011’s "In Some Way, Shape or Form," shied away from its nimble-and-punchy punk style in favor of something more rock-based and rigid.

"It didn’t really go over that well with the fans, but that’s a direction that we naturally progressed in," Day says. "We weren’t trying to throw a curve ball."

The five-track EP "Go Down in History," to be released July 22, will bring the band closer to its quick-riffing roots. "We wanted to embrace the writing style that we took to during last record, but incorporate the Four Year Strong things that people loved about us," Day says. "We just smooshed the two together."

When asked what keeps his band going through the two months of hot touring, Day’s response was simple: "So much water." If patrons choose to follow suit, free water will be supplied at the show to refill empty bottles or cups, as well as misting stations to keep cool after bouncing around in the crowd.

Speaking of the masses who dance, mosh and crowd-surf at the show, Warped Tour has posted signs this year bluntly stating the consequences of this risky behavior. The banners state: "You mosh, you crowd surf. You get hurt. We get sued. No more Warped Tour."

Day says he hasn’t seen tour officials actively stopping people from the potentially violent activities, but does agree with the message.

"Be respectful of the grounds and the rules and if you get hurt, don’t sue anybody," he says. "Everyone’s there for the same reason."